Fear of Flying
Fear of Flying
Although travel by no means has to involve flying, for most people going on a long distance trip does include some use of air transport. Fear of flying is something that holds many people back from going out into the world.
Intellectually, we can rationalize that the most dangerous means of transport, by a long way, is the car, and one of the safest ways, if not THE safest, is to fly. Unfortunately, our fears are more deeply rooted than our reason can contend with.
“Nothing is so much to be feared as fear”
Loesje
Often we cannot explain why we are frightened, only that we are, so we cannot use reason to overcome those fears.
Our fear of flying may have little to do with flight itself but may be triggered by other aspects of air travel.
I, Maria, did my first trip by plane almost 50 years ago (time flies!). I then continued to fly around the world without ever feeling any kind of anxiety. In fact, I really enjoyed it. Then, I had my first child. All of a sudden, just the thought of being confined in something high up in the sky, with my life in the hands of someone I didn’t know, and could not even see, made me absolutely terrified. I didn’t fly for many years. It wasn’t even an option to consider.
We traveled a lot as a growing family but never by plane.
We traveled by car, train or boat. We really got to learn the geography of Europe, where we did most of our traveling. When the rest of the family one day started talking about going somewhere “far away,” I knew the time had come when I had to do something about my fear of flying.
I signed up for a three day “fear of flying” course and that was the turning point. Meeting with people in the same situation and learning about both the psychology and the mechanics of flying, gave me so many insights and information that I just had to surrender. I began to let go of my fears and soon even started to look forward to some renewed traveling.
We then booked tickets for the whole family to go on a six month trip around the world. And this time we were going to do a LOT of flying!
The first flight was a bit shaky but I practiced everything I had learned in the course and it all went very well. After doing a few trips, and one day being on the way between Fiji and New Zealand, I, for the first time in years, even found myself enjoying the flight!
Being able to fly again has given me, and the rest of the family, so many opportunities to see fantastic places and meet wonderful people that I’m really glad I took some action and confronted my fear.
As an extra bonus it has helped me to be less frightened in other situations as well. I am generally more daring now. It has helped me realize that many of the things I have been afraid of, haven’t been dangerous at all, they were just notions that had existed in my mind.
Of course, for doing some extended world travel, you don’t necessarily have to fly. There are many other forms of transportation to choose from and your journey will be something different if flying isn’t on your program. But if you do want to fly and are avoiding it because of fear, you can turn that around!
